§ Jeremy CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what estimate he has made of the number of(a) pre-school, (b) primary, (c) secondary, (d) further education and (e) higher education pupils who have been diagnosed with dyslexia in each of the last five years; [103365]
(2) how much money was allocated for support of school-age children in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools who were diagnosed as being dyslexic, in each London borough, in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [103367]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggInformation on the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is collected from schools in January each year, via the Pupil Level Annual Schools Census. However, the data collected are not broken down by different categories of SEN, such as dyslexia. Currently, therefore, it is not possible to offer a realistic estimate of the number of children with dyslexia.
In June 2001, the Department carried out a pilot study involving a sample of 200 mainstream and special schools to assess whether it would be possible to collect data from schools on a broad range of types of SEN. Following that study, it is proposed that from 2004, schools and local education authorities will be required to provide information on a range of SEN, including specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia. It is expected that maintained nursery provision will be covered by the requirement as well as primary, secondary and special schools.
Based on information taken from the individualised student records, as collected by the Learning Skills Council for the academic year 2000–01, the only year for which full data are available, there were 20,400 students in further education colleges in England indicating their main learning difficulty as dyslexia.
Information collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, based on the student's own self-assessment, indicates the number of students with dyslexia in higher education as being:
1996–97 10,190 1997–98 13,000 1998–99 16,080 1999–2000 20,730 2000–01 26,490 Note:
Student numbers rounded to the nearest 10
Funding allocated to local education authorities under Education Formula Spending is not broken down between different categories of education spending, or for different types of SEN.